The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1887-04-09
A TRAIN DIsPATCHER's
STORY

Several years ago was employed As
train dispatcher on southwestern
American railroad. As usual there
were three of us in the office. i had
what Is called the .'second trick" my
hours OF duty being from 4 p. m. TO II
D. IN. The third man. Charlie Burns.
who came on at midnight and worked
till 3 a. m. was n particular friend OF
mine. He was young man OF high
character, fine dispatcher. and very
popular: aud when, during the burning
DAYS OF July. IL became known among
the men that he was confined to his
room by severe attack of malignant
fever many were the expressions of re-
gret aud of hope for his speedy recovery. |
During the trying days of Charles
/ illness l spent all the time i could |
spare by his side. but on account OF his
/ absence from the Office it was necessary
| for the remaining two of us To ''double |
| up"-that Is, work twelve hours each,
my watch being from p. IN. TO a. m.
l came ON duty one evening feeling
very bad. The weather was SO warm |
could not sleep well in the daytime; be-
sides. / had spent considerable part
of the day with Charlie. whose illness
had now reached critical stage. and
seemed to show little prospect of inn
provement
Hence. as you may imagine, ] was
not at all pleased to find that | was
likely To have a busy night OF IL
wreck on the road during the day had
thrown all the regular trains OF time.
and besides the usual number of special
freights there was Il special passenger
train TO leave Linwood, the eastern
terminus of our division. at IL p. IN.
with large party of excursionsts re-
turning from a picnic. For several
hours | had my hands full. There was
n special tram of live stock bound east
wnich had TO be kept moving, but was
being delayed by hot Journals; never
theless, | hoped TO get them into Lin
wood before the excursion train started
west
As usually happens i'm such cases. the
excursion train did not get ready TO
leave on time, and it was ll:40 y. IN.
when they reported for orders at Lin
: wood. liked up their orders. got the
report of their departure from Linwood
at ll:45. aud entered il on the train
sheet Then. having for the first time
, that night IL few minutes breathing
! time, rose from the table and went
over and seated myself by the window,
r where IL was cooler than under the
heated gas-jets over the table l was
r nlone in the Office, and as | sat there
e enioying the cool breeze which came in
a through the open window neighbor-
r ing church clock rang out the hour oi
$ II. From Iorce of habit | glanced al
g the door. almost expecting to heal
z Charities light footstep on the stair and
$ see the door open to admit him as oi
old.
"a Poor fellow" | thought cit will be
!. n long time before he enters that dool
- L.. at
~ last stroke of II, aud while my eve
: we're still liked on the door, it opene'
a. and Charlie Burns entered. NV aston
ishmcnt may be imagined better than
10 can describe il. NV first thought ws
a that in the delirum OF fever he ha'
r. escaped FROM his nurses and made hi
re way tu the Office, but when l LETT him
Iir few hours before ] could not have be
A. lieved that he had strength TO get out q
bed | sat and watched him in speech
less surprise. which was increased b
he his strange manner
n Instead OF bis usual hearty greetin
he took no notice of me at all, bu
NJ walked directly To the table and 80
81 down. Placing his hand upon the ke
he began calling &c" which was tn
ia Ia signal Tor Elm Grove the first station
=. SIX miles west of Linwood. Il, J. q.
vn came the response. Put out sigma
nm for special passenger west and copy.
mi .Ro, ..Ro. ..Ds" rang out the sonns
Wv er with Charles nimble fingers upo
Ter the key. ..Ro' was the call for hos
re dole, the SECOND station from Linwoo'
of eight miles west of Elm Grove. 81,
Ro." came back the answer
..Is special east comingP Ds"
uy Then. as sat by the window as OF
paralyzed, the awful truth tlashe
across my mind. had overlooked Il
stock train. laundering eastward TWEEN
miles an hour. and made no proyisic
for its meeting the excursion train.
blood seemed turned to ice as | heai
the reply:
They are at the switch. Ro."
Another minute and it would ha
been too late.
Still apparently oblivious of my pre-
ence. Charlie reached for the order-bo'
with his left haud. while his right CO
tinued to manipulate the key. and
heard the sounder click:
Out signal and copy Ds.
Order No. 7S4.
To G. aud T. Eng. 81 Ro.
c. and T. Eng. 49, ..
Special east eng. "a will take sidi
and meet special west eng. at Roseda
aid II J. w. NJ
quick as nash clihe udch the
= sponse from each station, and in j
ipie time than it takes me to write 1t
II order had been repeated and signed
ho' the conductor and engineer of ea
train, while Charlie copied it into
order-book and returned his 20. X. !"
den iheu' Us iea''no' tua' ""s %. e''
eral anu gre"t uisas'ci "'ei'ou' INC io'
pom sion Oh Ieeilhg WAS 700 "nuch ioi
the overstralneu nerves. anu iost q
evil scIousness-
her An hour after l was awakened o.
ack, familiar voice, and looked up 10 I
re- Frank Dwyer, one of our conductt
an who had volunteered TO watch 6
an night with Charlie, standing over
was wake up. old man." said ne, Il h;
bad news for YOU. Charlie died lust